全球智库信息集成服务系统(G2TT): Collective Action by Contract: Prior Appropriation and the Development of Irrigation in the Western United States

G2TT

来源类型	Working Paper
规范类型	报告
DOI	10.3386/w22185
来源ID	Working Paper 22185
	Collective Action by Contract: Prior Appropriation and the Development of Irrigation in the Western United States
	Bryan Leonard; Gary D. Libecap
发表日期	2016-04-25
出版年	2016
语种	英语
摘要	We analyze the economic determinants and effects of prior appropriation water rights that were voluntarily implemented across an immense area of the US West, abruptly replacing common-law riparian water rights. At the same time and place, vast private irrigation infrastructure added to the US capital stock. We build upon Ostrom and Gardner (1993) and model irrigation as a coordination problem to show how prior appropriation facilitated greater private infrastructure development than was possible under the baseline riparian system by i) securing access to water against future entry and ii) defining a property right that formed the basis for contracting around collective action problems among numerous, heterogeneous agents. We construct a dataset of 7,800 rights in Colorado, established between 1852 and 2013 including location, date, size, infrastructure investment, irrigated acreage, crops, topography, stream flow, soil quality, and precipitation to test the predictions of the model. We find that prior appropriation facilitated cooperation, doubling infrastructure investment and ultimately contributing between 3% and 21% of western state income in 1930. These outcomes are relative to the baseline alternative of a riparian system. The analysis reveals institutional innovation that informs our understanding of the development of property rights, prior appropriation, and contemporary water policy.
主题	Other ; Law and Economics ; History ; Other History ; Environmental and Resource Economics ; Agriculture ; Renewable Resources
URL	https://www.nber.org/papers/w22185
来源智库	National Bureau of Economic Research (United States)
引用统计
资源类型	智库出版物
条目标识符	http://119.78.100.153/handle/2XGU8XDN/579859
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Bryan Leonard,Gary D. Libecap. Collective Action by Contract: Prior Appropriation and the Development of Irrigation in the Western United States. 2016.

条目包含的文件
文件名称/大小	资源类型	版本类型	开放类型	使用许可
w22185.pdf（1604KB）	智库出版物		限制开放	CC BY-NC-SA	浏览